


D&D NPC Adventures

by MrFluffBunny



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:49:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26452129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrFluffBunny/pseuds/MrFluffBunny
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. I

Hadrian footfalls sounded loud and crisp, echoing down the marble halls of the Alabaster Lyceum’s dormitories. In his hand he gripped a small, folded piece of parchment, the material wrinkled under the weight of his fingers, dancing nervously in his pocket. The small population that filled the narrow halls immediately parted for him, students, Lyceum servants, perhaps guests but they were all beneath his notice as he strode past. Did they do it out of respect? Perhaps fear. Hadrian asked himself that question every day as he was forced to grow used to the fact that kith would always do this for him. Because he was a Moltke.

Hadrian might have found some comfort in the fact that a few of the Lyceum’s occupants and students were the type who were too focused in their studies, their endless pursuit of arcane knowledge, to ever truly treat him with the respect that was “deserving” of his station. Rare enough, he had grown rather attached to one such kith; in a way that was more than just a friend. Love? His father would have said he was too young to truly understand what love was, so for the time being, he would just enjoy the time that he had with her.

Hadrian drew close to her door and he felt his shoulders drop, his posture go slack, as they often did when they were together. The solid wooden door was closed and he pounded against it four times before taking a small step back. The thick wooden absorbed a good amount of sound but not enough to have a glance from a passing student be cast his way. Their relationship wasn’t exactly secret, a fact that gained him a never-ending stream of complaints from his father about the scandalous nature of it all; his only comfort was that his brother had it worse than him and he smirked at the thought of it.

There was no reply.

Either she didn’t hear or she was playing coy. Most likely the latter, she was definitely one of those “curious” sorts. Somehow that actually made it easier to be around her if he could just ignore the nagging feeling of…

Hadrian’s hand shot forward, perhaps a little too fast as he pushed the thought from his mind. It hardly mattered at the moment. Pressing down on the handle, the door began to groan open, “It’s me, I’m coming in,” a line that he had repeated so many times before the words felt as worn as the wood.

Pressing the door shut behind him, he looked into the square room; a mess. Abnormally tidy, neat, and the kind of military precision that could cut was what he was expecting. Instead what he found was a tossed about room, nothing heinous or apocalyptic, but strangely out of character. The abnormal perfection he had grown used to was now replaced with a scene that most people would have considered to be normal. But for him, it wasn’t.

“Thea?” Hadrian called only slightly above his normal speaking tone, the caution and curiousness tinged his voice as he walked in. His head craned from right to left, left to right. Several things were missing from the room, notably books, clothes, and some other small items and equipment. Perhaps she had a similar idea to his and planned on meeting him in his own dorm, the lack of so much of her stuff hinted that she planned another “prolonged study session.”

It’d be a simple thing to confirm, a single spell, actually, to call it a spell would have been an overstatement at how little of a feat it was. But something in him wanted to keep the surprise, both for his sake and hers. This was something that they should speak about in person. Besides, the frivolous use of magic would have earned him another lecture at least and a whipping at worst. His thumb continued to make its circular motions against the parchment in his pocket, the crinkling of it being the only noise in the room. He retreated.

Back through the dorm’s hall, outside and across the field, a rare sight of greenery in New Adasta, space dedicated to a garden on an island city was an extravagant waste. Kith loitered and lounged in the afternoon sun, their shouts and idle chatter just the backdrop in Hadrian’s mind as he couldn’t seem to shake a feeling, a pinch at the very bottom of his heart. He could feel it beating.

He entered the dorm across the hall and finally found the door to his room. He didn’t bother to knock, “Thea!” he called once again. The door closed with a heavy thunk which only accentuated the silence that followed.

Hadrian was alone in the room.

His fist clenched a little tighter, his heart sunk a little further, his feet carried him into the center of the room. His desk was clean, nothing was out of place. His wardrobe was neat, it could be easily packed away in a few minutes. Where was she?

Hadrian’s eyes fell on his pillow, it was different. Another piece of paper, folded with a single crease of care, neighboring a small pouch. His free hand reached for it, treating it with caution. His thumb tucked under the folder and slowly lifted it open.

“I’m sorry, stay brilliant”

And just like that, she was gone.

Three sturdy pounds sounded against the wooden door and Hadrian’s head immediately whipped to it in response. “My lord, we are ready for you,” a voice, male, polite, not hers.

Hadrian blinked. “Of course,” he said, but his voice caught on something. “Of course,” he repeated, louder this time. Enough for whichever attendant stood on the other side of that door. And hopefully for himself. “A few minutes.”

“Yes, my lord.” The voice retreated away.

Hadrian cast a look around the room. It didn’t quite feel real. He didn’t know how to feel. He pulled his right hand out of his pocket, revealing the fine parchment once more, now wrinkled and damaged far beyond what a letter of its kind should have received. He opened it and let it drop to the floor without ceremony as he packed his belongings in silence.

It’s contents, “Lord Hadrian von Moltke, you are hereby accepted into the Mettenheim Kriegsakademie.”


	2. The Marquis of Vinheim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two nobles, sitting five feet apart because they're talking some politics.

“It’s a mistake.”

“Really, Aegir? You wait for our hunting trip to tell me this?”

The thin Elf with long black hair that draped past the back of his head and down his neck, dressed in a professional black, white, and yellow surcoat, lined with fur eased into a wooden chair standing in the dirt and grass across from a circular wooden table. The thin, white canvas of their tent gently whipping in the early spring wind. “Where better, my lord? We have privacy so my doing so will not affect your standing.”

The pallid Marquis of Vinheim nodded as if satisfied with the answer. Or perhaps it was exactly what he expected. “I’m fully aware of what it is.”

“The only credit I give her is that she had the hindsight to inform you before she went out on her own.”

“You underestimate her, Lord Aegir.”

“I don’t believe that I do, Lord Vinheim.”

By contrast to the Elf, a Human of ghastly physique sat on the other side of the table, nursing a warm wooden cup in his hands; his body draped in thick furs as if to hide the sickening frailty of his body. His light green eyes shifted, focusing on Valerian von Aegir, with the cruelty reminiscent of a viper, “Well, then speak, Lord Aegir. Get the weight off your chest.”

To anyone unfamiliar with the Marquis, that, combined with his low, gravelly voice, might have come across as hostility. Aegir settled into his seat with no such fear, “She clearly jumped the steed. We have spent months cultivating the perfect environment to earn the support of both the peasantry and the nobility to annex Königsberg and its attendant lands.” He makes a wave of his hand toward nothing as if to emphasize the point, “And in a single action, she ‘forces’ your hand and jeopardizes the entire situation. Not necessarily to our benefit, I might add.”

“She cares about the lives that will be lost because of it.”

“Since when did you care about morality, my lord?”

A thin smile stretches across Orvek von Vinheim’s face but with none of the warmth or care that would inspire any sense of goodness, “I don’t. But she does. So she goes.”

“In any other court, in any other fiefdom, that simple admission would be enough to raise your vassals against you. Being dictated at by your wife. It’s weakness.”

“I concur,” Orvek’s head fully shifts towards Valerian, giving all sense of his full attention to the Elf. “But this isn’t any other court. Any other fiefdom. Is it?”

A pause. A grimacing smile across Valerian’s face. “No, my lord. It is not.”

“Then we are resolved.” Orvek allows himself to relax in his seat, gaze resetting to the open entrance of the tent to the winter landscape available to him through what seemed like a window to another realm. “She will not compromise the full integrity of what we wish to accomplish in Königsberg. She has more political sense than you give her credit for.”

“She could afford to act like it, with respect, my lord.”

Orvek offers a single beat of laughter from himself, “She doesn’t care what people like us think. She cares about saving lives and I have given her the Order of Auspitallers to do it. At the very worst, Sabine will keep her check.”

“You love her too much.”

“Perhaps. But simply put, you must trust the partner in your life with your life. She understands her role.”

“And you’re not even the slightest bit aggravated with how she forced your hand?”

“Have I not given you the impression that I am seething with rage?” Orvek turned to Valerian who met him with a look of comical disbelief, “I cannot stop her nor can I control her, nor have I any intention to do so. Because we have an understanding between each other.”

The distant sounds of dogs barking from the woods echoed across the field signaling for Orvek to push him from his seat under the weight of all the heavy furs. He looked to Valerian, “Now then. Shall we go kill something?”

Valerian smiles, blinked slowly, and stood, “At your pleasure, my lord.”

“My lord.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably gonna do more with this, but that's for another time.

**Author's Note:**

> There are at maximum seven people who should know about this, so if you're reading this... HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND THIS!?


End file.
